


Unlikely Allies

by Ekokai



Series: Welcome Home, Jarod [2]
Category: The Pretender
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:50:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1909857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ekokai/pseuds/Ekokai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of Welcome Home, Jarod. Secrets are exposed and alliances are revealed as Jarod realizes he won't be able to escape without help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unlikely Allies

The Centre  
Blue Cove, Delaware

 

The hallways of the Centre were deserted except for Miss Parker who was striding confidently toward Sydney's office. The urge to look around and tread softly was overwhelming but stupid. She had to appear perfectly normal in the security tape no matter how anxious she was to speak with Sydney. After all, there was nothing unusual about her roaming the Centre in the middle of the night; she did it all the time. Lately though, she couldn't shake the feeling her every move was being carefully scrutinized.

 

Sydney sat at his computer watching a DSA of Jarod’s' last simulation before Raines had banished the Pretender to Sublevel 26. He looked intently at the screen, looking for any clues as to Jarod’s state of mind as he ran the simulation. The Sim completed, Jarod stopped to talk to one of the lab techs. The tech told a joke and Jarod smiled politely, but there was an emptiness to it. 

Another keystroke and the image changed to a computer copy of a home video commandeered from one of the men of Unit 16 in Pittsburgh where Jarod had pretended to be a firefighter. 

The video ran a tour of the firehouse and entered the rec room where Jarod sat cross-legged on the floor playing with a Dalmatian. As the camera stopped on Jarod, he looked up and frowned.

"What's with the camera, Adam?"

"A tour of the firehouse for my Grandmother in Australia. Can you get the dog to do something cute?" A voice requested from behind the camera.

"Sure, Australia should be far enough away," Jarod agreed as he took hold of the dog’s collar.

"What?"

"Never mind. Watch this, he just learned it today."

Jarod turned the dog toward the camera.

"Ember sit. Good boy. Look at the camera. Ember, wave. Come on, boy, wave," Jarod encouraged, watching the dog intently. Ember sat up and pawed at the air. Jarod's face lit up with a broad smile and Sydney froze the image. He stared at it and could not remember the last time he saw Jarod smile like that, if indeed he ever had.

"Torturing yourself isn't going to help him," Miss Parker announced from a few feet behind him.

Sydney let the comment slide off his back, his eyes never wavering from the picture. 

"I never noticed that he didn't smile. Can you believe that? It's like looking at two different people."

Miss Parker glanced at the screen and felt a small pang of guilt for her part in Jarod's current dilemma but it passed quickly. If it wasn't for him, and the other little freaks in the Centre, her mother would be alive and the two of them would be far from this place.

She pulled a chair up to the side of Syd's desk and waited for a moment before she had his attention.

"Okay, you've had an hour to come up with a good reason for what you did to Jarod. Let’s hear it."

Sydney sighed as he leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. He didn't like this at all. No one, except himself and Raines, knew this. He doubted even Mr. Parker had been told the entire story. Sydney had a lot to lose by telling Miss Parker the truth, but if he could finally save Jarod it would be worth anything.

"What were you told?" Sydney hedged. Perhaps she knew more than she was telling.

"As far as the Centre’s records are concerned, Jarod was an orphan that showed Pretender abilities that were recognized by one of our outside consultants and his guardianship was transferred to the Centre at the request of Mr. Raines. The picture Jarod was given of his mother is a phony and any records of his whereabouts after he was brought here were destroyed. What's your story? And, this better be good," she challenged as she lit a cigarette and leaned back in the chair.

Sydney sighed, disappointed. She had swallowed the same Centre story that everyone else with any clearance was told. He would have to start at the very beginning. Sydney rose and began pacing the room as he spoke.

"Jacob and I had a younger sister, Emily. She was a genius and needed a more challenging environment than could be found in our village. A family friend arranged for a private school in the US when she was 14. We received regular letters from her and she claimed to be having a wonderful time and her teachers said she was doing well. The first summer she was home she seemed happy but distracted. Always needing to be doing something, never sitting still for more than a few minutes. She was home for two months when the school called and said classes were starting early that year and she had to come back. She said she didn't want to go but our father attributed that to homesickness and off she went. That was the last time we heard from her."

"What about the school?" Miss Parker cut in. "Didn't they know where she was?"

Sydney shook his head. 

"We contacted the police in the US and they could find no record of the school ever having existed. The family friend was nowhere to be found and we hit dead ends at every turn for 7 years."

"A missing, gifted child in the 1950's? It has the Centre written all over it," Miss Parker commented knowingly.

"Yes, it does. Unfortunately no one knew it existed. In 1962 I was recruited by the Centre to work in Psychogenic Research. I was here almost a year when I received a call from my father. He said someone called claiming to be a friend of Emily's and he wanted me to go see her in El Paso. I'm ashamed to say I had given up hope of Emily being alive a long time before that. I had a great job and was in line for a promotion and I wasn't about to risk losing that by going across the country on a wild goose chase. I had a friend, Hans, go see the woman in my place. When he returned three days later he had a little boy with him. Emily's son."

"Jarod," Miss Parker stated, getting more and more interested in the story.

"Yes. Hans said Emily was afraid for her life. Her husband, a pilot, had disappeared and she wanted the boy taken and hidden. She didn't want to know where. She told him she would contact our father when she wanted her son back. When they arrived I was in the middle of a very important experiment. I had Hans put the boy in one of the labs to play until I was finished. When I looked in an hour later Jarod had dismantled one of our new computers and was redesigning it. Nobody knew Jarod was here or who he was so I had one of the other psychologist’s test his IQ and it was off the chart. I thought as long as he was here we could find some use for him so I told Mr. Raines what I was doing."

Sydney stopped pacing and stared off into space as he remembered that horrible day.

"He was very excited," Sydney continued so softly that Miss Parker had to strain to hear him. "Too excited and I didn't know why until he was good enough to enlighten me."

"He told you the Centre had taken Emily?" Miss Parker guessed as she ground out the cigarette in the ashtray on the desk.

"She had been given to them by my father's friend, probably in return for money or a favor. Four years later, she was pregnant with the child of a Pretender. Before the baby was born she and the man escaped."

Sydney stopped suddenly and laughed, the irony just now hitting him. "I guess you could say Jarod was pre-programmed to disappear on us.”

Miss Parker glared at him, clearly not amused.

"Go on," she instructed, searching her pockets for another cigarette and finding none.

"The Centre had hired me hoping to have a connection back to her should she ever contact the family. Thanks to me they now had a good idea where Emily was and she would be brought back and......'re-educated.' "

Sydney looked at Miss Parker, his eyes begging for understanding. 

"All I was thinking about was my sister, I didn't know Jarod. In a panic I offered to keep quiet about him in exchange for her life and that of her husbands should he ever be found. I called my father and told him that Hans' car had crashed on the way to my home and he and the boy were killed. The car had burned and there were no bodies. Then, I calmly introduced myself to Jarod and told him I would be taking care of him for a while."

Miss Parker was stunned. "What about your father and Jacob? When Emily contacted them didn't they tell her where you were working?"

"She didn't call, her friend did. Jacob told her what had happened and she promised Emily would contact him. She never did. A year later our father died and Jacob came to work here, never suspecting that his favorite little Pretender was his nephew."

"I never thought it would happen," Miss Parker announced, her voice dripping with amazement.

"What?" Sydney asked anxiously, turning toward her. Was she going to help him?

"For a moment I felt sorry for Jarod. On the other hand, I never knew you could be so devious and calculating. We needed to see this side of you more often when we were tracking him. I'm impressed," she admitted, smiling at the older man.

"I didn't tell you this to impress you," Sydney complained angrily. "You said that you wanted to kill me for giving Jarod to the Centre and now that you know the details you want to put me on a pedestal?"

"Wanting to kill you was a gut reaction I get often. If Jarod ever hears this story he'll no doubt have the same reaction, but I'm willing to bet he'll act on it."

"Jarod must never know who his parents are. He's been told they're dead."

"Oh, yeah, I've seen how he believes that one. Don't worry, he won't hear it from me. At least not all at once."

"Your father would be very upset if he found out you had this information. Raines would be homicidal." He looked her squarely in the eye to make his point. "You would not be safe."

"I'll worry about me, if you don't mind. I know what it's like to be on the other end of one of the Centre’s secrets. You all know what really happened to my mother. Hell, even Jarod knows. I just wanted the same kind of leverage for the next time he plays his little 'what happened to your mommy' game with me."

"So, that act in the hall...?"

"Just that. An act. I don't care if Jarod ever sees the light of day again. Everyone has a story. Now, yours was one of the best I've heard, but it doesn't give me a reason to help you get Jarod out of the Centre."

"Don't get him out of the Centre. Just get him back up here where he belongs and out of isolation," Sydney begged desperately.

"My God, Syd, he's only been down there for an hour. I hardly think he's permanently damaged. It's dark and there's nothing to do, big deal."

"It will be for him. It hasn't been pure altruism that has been driving him to help all these people on the outside. He can't just exist, he has to be doing something, be stimulated, at all times or it could drive him over the edge. Do you understand? He's locked up with absolutely nothing to do, nobody to talk to, in complete darkness. He's probably beginning to feel the effects already."

"Before I even consider thinking about helping you, I have to know the answer to one thing."

"Just one?” Sydney almost smiled.” That doesn't sound like you."

Miss Parker chose to ignore the barb.

"If you had all this guilt over stealing his life, why help recapture him? You've been helping him escape for months-"

"I have not," Sydney protested indignantly, cutting her off in mid-sentence.

"Oh come on, Syd," Miss Parker sneered. "Every time we got within fifty feet of him you would holler his name at the top of your lungs and he'd bolt. How, exactly, was that helping us to catch him?"

"I wasn't warning him, I was just excited," Sydney explained sheepishly.

"So then why, all of a sudden, do you do something that gets him caught and turns you into instant pond scum where he is concerned?"

That was the hardest decision he had ever made. After years of looking for a way to get Jarod away from the Centre Sydney had been delighted to discover he had escaped. It was only later that he realized the potential danger for both the outside world and Jarod himself.

"You wouldn't understand," he proclaimed, trying to brush her off. 

"Try me," she demanded softly, "and maybe I'll help you."

Sydney thought about it for a moment. He had already given her enough information to get them both killed. But if there was a chance in hell of helping Jarod now he had to go all the way.

"When he first escaped, the first person he helped was a child. He pretended to be a doctor. His 'revenge' on the attending physician was to make the poor man believe he was dying and was going to be operated on by a drunk. Now that was…poetic justice. Remember how we all thought it was a bit amusing if you weren't the doctor."

Miss Parker did remember having a good laugh on the way home. She wouldn't have found it so funny had she known that was the start of a yearlong chase.

"So? I'm sure you have a point coming up eventually," she yawned, looking at her watch.

"So, ever since he got away with that, his revenge scenarios have been getting more and more violent. He caused the cave-in that trapped the ranger in Oregon. He left a man dangling in a net in the path of a hurricane. He let that murderer in Las Vegas get beaten nearly to death."

"He had that one coming," Miss Parker argued. "What are you saying? You think Jarod is going to go too far and kill someone? Even I don't buy that. He's not the type."

"That's what we thought about the others," Sydney admitted sadly. He saw her look up suddenly. That got her attention.

"Others? What others?"

"The other Pretenders. Years ago, before Jarod, the Pretenders were never locked up. We wanted them exposed to everything so they could simulate whatever we asked of them. It was too late when we discovered that there was such a thing as too much information. Two of them ran a simulation for a bank in New York City. It was supposed to be theft proof and the owners wanted to be certain. The Pretenders were, of course, given every detail of the bank and the security system. After a few simulations we decided it was indeed theft proof. Unfortunately, once they left here, the two decided it would have been more accurate running the simulation in person. They went to the bank the next day and tried to rob it. They killed two security guards and a customer before the police gunned them down. They didn't mean to. As far as they were concerned they were running a more accurate simulation. They lost themselves in the roles they were playing."

"Any you really think that, given time, Jarod would get carried away and kill someone?"

"Intentionally? Never. Accidentally? Yes. And I can guarantee you that if it happened it would devastate him. He would immediately turn himself in to the authorities and even if the Centre was able to get him out of prison, his mind would be lost to both us and him. I had to get him back here to save him from that."

"How am I supposed to help him?" She asked out of curiosity and dreading the answer.

"Talk to your father..."

Yep. That was the answer she saw coming. Why was it every time someone wanted her help it involved talking to father?

"My father is not going to listen to me where Jarod is concerned. I don't even know if I want to put up the effort. It's been kind of nice not having to traipse all over the country and clean up after him with dozens of police forces and rangers and fire officials and hospital boards and-"

"I get the idea," Sydney cut her off. He sat down in his chair behind the desk and hit the space bar, turning off the screen saver as Jarod's smiling face reappeared.

Miss Parker stood and started from the room, her heels clicking loudly on the tiled floor. "If you come up with something that doesn't involve me talking to my father, give me a call." She left the room and headed for the staff lounge and her favorite vending machine. She needed a cigarette in the worst way.

Sydney stared at the picture of Jarod with the dog and shook his head.

"What have I done to you?"

Isolation room 7  
Sublevel 26

Jarod smiled as he laid back on his new bed. Alone at last. What a relief. He hoped his final, desperate plea for help hadn't been too much. He hadn't planned on saying anything when the guards took him away, but when he had caught sight of Sydney looking so miserable he couldn't resist. 

Poor Syd. He was probably thought Jarod was bouncing off the walls by now. It was true that the last time he was here he had been on the verge of losing his mind when they finally let him out, but he was only a boy then. He was unprepared and his skills were not sharpened to a fine edge like they were now. And then there was that little problem of being afraid of the dark.

Of course, once exposed to something new, a Pretender never forgets. That's why Jarod found it amusing that they thought they could punish him again by locking him away. This was no longer virgin territory. Jarod knew what to expect and was actually enjoying being on his own again after six weeks of constant attention up above.

He rolled over in bed and grimaced at the pain in his abdomen. Sam packed quite a punch. Jarod would remember that too.

Four days later Jarod was laying on his back, pretending he was an astronaut lost in space, when the lights came on. He covered his eyes with his arm and let them gradually adjust to the fluorescent light. A moment later the door cracked open and Sam looked in.

Jarod briefly thought it might be fun one day to be standing there when it opened and scare the hell out of Sam, but that's as far as the thought got. He wasn't up to plotting further.

Sam placed a tray with soup and salad on the table and stepped back, waiting for Jarod to eat so he could get back to the upper levels. He didn't like it down here at all. Sam didn’t believe the ghost stories told by other sweepers, about disembodied voices and object hurling themselves through the air, but why take unnecessary risks?

Jarod rolled slowly off the bed and wandered over to the table where he poked at his food for a minute before a wave of nausea made him push the tray away. 

"Take this back out with you. I don't want it," Jarod told Sam softly.

This was now the fourth meal Jarod was going to skip. Since Sam's orders didn't include starving anyone to death he risked speaking to his prisoner.

"Something wrong with your food?"

"No. I don't feel well. I can't eat." Jarod looked at Sam thoughtfully. "Maybe I need a doctor."

Sam laughed, but there was no humor in it. He was getting tired of games. He had just spent four hours trying to convince payroll that Jarod was behind his sudden wealth. Not that fifty thousand dollars wouldn't come in handy but it would be difficult for a corpse to spend.

"Maybe you need to stop thinking I'm an idiot. You're not getting out of here by pretending to be sick. Didn't you learn that as a kid? It never works."

"I never pretended to be sick as a kid because I never got to be a kid," Jarod snarled irritably as he headed for the small bathroom.

Sam watched him warily, one hand on gun at his waist, waiting for any sudden moves. 

When Jarod started complaining about a gnawing pain a few days after he was brought down here, Sam had attributed it to the blows to the stomach that he himself had administered. After being made to look like a fool in front of Raines, Sam had hit Jarod harder than he had ever hit anyone before. There was bound to be some tenderness for a few days at least, but this was going on too long. One thing was for sure, he wasn't falling for another one of Jarod's tricks.

When Jarod slammed the bathroom door Sam picked up the tray and left the room. The door clicked shut behind him and he inserted the key that would turn the lights off. 

He hesitated, thinking for a moment that he would leave them on for a while, then changed his mind. With his luck, this would be the day Mr. Raines decided to stroll down here.

 

Mr. Parker looked around furtively as he slipped into the kitchen where the residents' dinner was being prepared. The cook, who was becoming used to her boss's daily visits, looked up from chopping vegetables and smiled.

"Looking for another recipe?" She asked, her thick, German accent echoing around the large room.

Mr. Parker answered warmly. "I've tried all of them so far Mrs. Luger. None come out as good as yours. I just stopped by to say hello."

"Ah, good. I like the company," she admitted happily. She dumped a sack of red potatoes into the sink to wash and tossed the sack in the trash.

"Can I help you with anything? Maybe I can stir the soup for you," he offered, picking up the ladle.

Mrs. Luger laughed heartily. "I never see a man so interested in soup before. Always with you it’s the soup."

Parker smiled as he began stirring. "Well, I just can't explain it. Really, I can't."

"Well, you go and stir. I go get more vegetables and I be back."

Mr. Parker watched her trudge over to the walk-in pantry and disappear inside.

Quickly, he pulled a small envelope from his pocket and emptied the contents into the soup. When Mrs. Luger came back a minute later the gray powder was dissolved and the envelope was back in Mr. Parker's jacket. He was stirring the soup as if nothing had happened.

 

Jarod sat on the floor in the far corner of the dark room, knees bent and pulled to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs. The room was silent except for an occasional groan of pain as he tried for a more comfortable position. It had been nine days since he had been dumped here and the novelty was wearing off. He didn't mind the boredom, he could run any number of simulations in his head to take care of that. He did however miss talking to people and being outside. Worst of all, he felt like crap.

Jarod shifted again and gingerly stretched his legs out in front of him, leaning back against the wall. A moment later he heard the key turn in the lock and closed his eyes as the light came on and his pupils fought to adjust to the new brightness. The door opened quickly and Broots came in, carrying dinner and a notebook. 

He looked at Jarod sitting on the floor in the corner and then at the bed a few feet away.

"Camping out?" Broots asked as he put the tray on the table and walked over to stand in front of Jarod.

Jarod squinted, waiting another few seconds for his eyes to adjust and then looked up and gave Broots a grim smile.

"Stuck again? I thought you'd have all those files put back together by now."

Broots looked around to make sure the door had closed behind him. He didn't want this to turn into a suicide mission.

"I do," he whispered, squatting down in front of Jarod,” but I thought you could use a visitor so I dumped last year’s tax records. I told Mr. Raines that I needed a password from you to retrieve the file."

Jarod's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You lied to Raines? I'm impressed."

"Yeah, well...I'm not going to make it a habit. I like being alive." He looked over to the table and back at Jarod. 

"Uh, are you getting up or should I put your dinner on the floor?"

Jarod thought it over for a moment. He had been carefully drinking small amounts of water all morning and although he was hungry, he wasn't sure how his stomach was going to react. 

"Give me a hand?" he asked, extending his arm toward Broots who immediately took hold of it and stood. 

Jarod supported his midsection with his right arm as he carefully, painfully pulled himself up.

Broots looked at him incredulously. "Are you still sore from Sam hitting you?"

"No," Jarod mumbled, wishing he had stayed on the floor. "I just don't feel well."

"Have you told the guards?" Broots asked as he pulled the metal chair out from the table and waited while Jarod eased himself into it.

"I told Sam but he didn't believe me. He thinks I'm running a simulation on him...pretending to be sick so I can get out of here."

"Are you? Pretending, I mean?" Broots wondered aloud as he pushed the tray of food in front of Jarod.

"No. I don't know what's wrong," Jarod replied, pushing the tray to the other side of the table.

"You've been a doctor, can't you tell what's wrong with yourself?"

The tray came back at Jarod who stared at it dejectedly.

"I'm not really a doctor. I know only what I've read and I didn't read anything that sounds like what I have. It's probably the flu. I hear it makes you feel horrible."

"You're telling me you've never had the flu?" Broots asked, wishing he could say the same thing. The last time he had the flu Miss Parker made him come to work anyway. When she went to lunch he had gone into her office and breathed on everything hoping to pass it along.

"Not that I remember. Sick people aren't allowed around little Pretenders who have work to do."

"So, uh, why were you sitting on the floor?"

"Every time I sit on the bed I fall asleep. Too much sleep dulls the brain."

"Not enough keeps you sick," Broots reasoned, sticking a spoon into Jarod's hand.

"Well, you might have a point there" Jarod conceded. “I don't have any experience at this. You'd better go, and for your own safety, I don't think you should come back. I don't think even Sydney knows that we're friends."

"I can guarantee that," Broots laughed knowingly. "When you disappeared he had me read your bio. I almost pointed out that your favorite color is gray, not blue."

Broots looked down at the floor and nervously fiddled with his watchband.

"Look, Jarod. I'm sorry about blocking you from that keyboard. I have to -"

"Think about your daughter," Jarod cut him off, dropping the spoon onto the tray and pushing it away for what he hoped to be the last time.

"I know. It's fine. I'm sure we can find some way to blame this whole mess on Sam."

Broots smiled and handed Jarod the notebook and pencil he had with him.

"Here, I almost forgot. I came for a password. If anyone asks, I want it in your writing."

Jarod took the offering and stared at the blank paper for a moment.

"Does Sydney still spend a lot of time in the lab when you’re working?" He asked thoughtfully as he tapped the pencil on the table.

"Yeah, he's still cataloguing all your red notebooks. Why?" Broots questioned suspiciously.

"No reason." Jarod wrote a fictitious password on the paper and handed back the pad and pencil.

"I'd better go," Broots announced as he removed the bowl and spoon from the tray and set them squarely in front of Jarod. He went to the door and raised a fist to knock, then turned back toward his friend.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Jarod assured him, hoping it was true.

Broots knocked on the door and it was opened immediately. He hurried past the guard, a plan already forming in his head.

Jarod sat and slowly swirled the spoon around in his soup, watching the vegetables pop to the surface and then quickly sink. The aroma lured him into trying a small amount of broth and after the first mouthful went down fine he waited to see if it would stay there. After a few tense moments he was satisfied he was making progress and continued to eat, even trying a few veggies. He was on his fourth spoonful when his stomach cramped, doubling him over. 

He barely made it to the bathroom before the lights went out again and dinner made a return appearance.

 

Broots sat at his computer working on bank records for every person in the US that had the first or last name of Jarod. The Centre was still very interested in what was left of the $500,000 that Jarod had commissioned from their Wall Street deal last year and that was one piece of information Jarod would never part with. Broots suspected Jarod had given most of it away, but looking for it kept him from being reassigned to another case.

He had just cleared the state of Colorado when Sydney wandered in.

"I hear you had to get some information from Jarod yesterday. Did you speak to him?"

Broots swallowed hard and looked away, suddenly very interested in a scratch on his desk.

"I had to ask a question, get a password, but he wrote it down and I left. I didn't talk to him, he didn't talk to me."

Sydney shook his head in amazement. He had never seen anyone so transparent. That was probably why the Centre had hired Broots. They didn't like deception that wasn't their own.

"I hope you can be more believable if Raines asks you that question. If you act any guiltier he's going to think you were in there plotting an escape."

Broots looked around before grudgingly admitting was lying.

"Well, maybe I stayed a minute. I just helped him to the table and made sure he was going to try and eat before I left."

"Why would he need help to the table?" Sydney asked, worry clear on his face.

"Oh, haven't you heard," asked Broots casually, dying to get the information out. He turned back to his computer and pulled up the banking records for Connecticut. 

"Heard what?" Sydney asked, irritation edging his voice. He was getting too old to play cloak and dagger with the underlings.

Broots looked around carefully and Sydney caught himself doing the same thing.

"He's sick," Broots whispered conspiratorially. "Really, sick. He told Sam but Sam doesn't believe him. He thinks Jarod is pretending."

"What do you think?" Sydney whispered back, wondering himself if Jarod was up to something.

Broots appeared to be deep in thought before he replied.

"I'd say yes, he is sick. I grabbed his arm to help him up and I could feel the heat coming off of him. I didn't even think he could hold the pencil to give me this password."

Sydney glanced down at the pad of paper Broots had gestured toward and felt a shock ripple through him. The word Jarod had carefully printed was clearly meant for Sydney. 

REFUGE 

 

Miss Parker sat at home in her favorite chair cuddling her rabbit, JJ. She reveled in the feel of his silky fur and the way his little pink nose twitched as he looked around. Of all the gifts Jarod had sent her while she hunted him down, JJ was her favorite.

The phone jarred her out of her relaxed state and she grabbed it on the second ring.

"What?" she demanded to know, irritated that her night was being interrupted. JJ hopped from her lap and began exploring the floor for treats that seemed to magically appear.

"I've been hearing rumors our mutual acquaintance is not doing well." 

Miss Parker rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed audibly. Just once she would like to get a phone call at night that did not involve Jarod.

"What do you want me to do about it?" She reached for her cigarettes then remembered she had JJ out of his room. The last thing she wanted was for him to be exposed to second hand smoke. 

She opened the desk drawer and tossed the cigarettes inside before slamming it shut. Grabbing a pack of gum instead, she tried to listen to the conversation while looking for the little wax string that would open the new pack.

"As we've discussed, you have connections in that area. I was hoping you could use them."

"You know how I feel about that. Do you have any proof?" She held the gum closer to her face and squinted, still looking for a way to open it.

Sydney looked at the paper in his hand, "You might say I've received a message."

"I don't even want to know about that." She glanced over JJ hopping across the floor and weighed her options.

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not making any promises."

"Fair enough. Will you try tonight?"

"Possibly. I'll let you know."

She hung up the phone and tossed the unopened gum into a waste basket. Scooping up JJ she gave the bunny a kiss on the head and put him back in the guest room with his litter box and toys.

"I have to go out, but I'll be back," she told him as she closed the door. "You be good, Junior. I have to go see what your Daddy is up to."

 

Miss Parker opened the door to Jarod’s room and quietly inserted the key that would turn on the lights before closing it behind her. An untouched plate of food was on the table and the rumpled bed was empty.

Her heart skipped a beat thinking Jarod had escaped then looked around again and realized he must be in the bathroom. She moved quietly to the door and listened, but heard nothing. Making a fist she rapped hard on the door and stepped back as it started to open then stopped suddenly.

"Jarod? Are you decent?" She called out, pausing as she caught herself wishing he wasn't.

She pushed hard until there was enough room for her to stick her head in. Just inside the door, Jarod lay on the floor, unconscious.

Pushing the door against his legs she squeezed through the opening and dropped down to his side. She felt the pulse in his neck and then laid her hands on his forehead, cheeks, and bare chest. 

"My God, you're burning up."

She rose to go get help and then remembered she wasn't supposed to be in here. The guard was still outside and was an old friend who had agreed to turn his back while she entered, but she couldn't ask him to risk his job helping her again.

Jarod was sprawled on his back, arms out to the sides and legs bent up against the door. 

She put her arm under his knees and lifted his legs out of the way, opened the door, then let them down gently.

"Jarod? Come on, wake up. Hey, come on, you have to get up. I can't carry you."

Jarod heard the voice, pleading with him to get up and walk. He barely had the energy to breath and Dragon Lady wanted him to get up and walk.

"Come on, Jarod. I'll make it worth your while." She whispered seductively. "Wouldn't you rather be in a nice bed than on the floor?"

Well, he couldn't argue with that. He still didn't want to move, but he wanted her to know he knew she was there.

Miss Parker smiled when she saw Jarod's eyelashes flutter and open. As his brown eyes focused on her anxious face, a faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"This is the best hallucination I've had yet," he mumbled as he started to drift away again.

"No you don't, stay with me here, Jarod," she begged as she slipped her arm under his back and pulled him into a sitting position. 

"We're getting up. Try to stand."

Jarod opened his eyes and appeared lucid for the first time.

"Up?" he asked, looking around before his eyes came to rest on hers. He shook his head slowly. "I don't think so."

"Well I do," she countered firmly as she moved in front of him and took hold of his right arm.

"Grab onto the sink and help me get you up. Ready?"

"If you insist," Jarod agreed, but he still had his reservations about moving.

"Yes, I do. Ready? Up!"

She pulled with all her weight as Jarod struggled to his feet. Once standing, he swayed and fell heavily against the wall. Miss Parker pulled his arm over her shoulders and led him from the bathroom.

Fortunately for her it was a small room and she only had to support his weight for a half dozen steps. Jarod collapsed on the bed in an almost lifeless heap, unconscious once again. 

He was slick with sweat but starting to shake with chills. Sydney had been right, Jarod was very sick. 

Making her decision quickly, she pulled the blanket over him and called for the guard.

Jarod had the sensation of movement and could see light from behind his closed eyelids. 

He heard voices speaking quickly, then more movement. He tried to open his eyes to see what was going on, but the effort was too much. He felt something wet on his arm and the then prick of a needle as it slid in. Great, more needles. He was considering a protest when a warm hand pressed into his and squeezed tight. As he drifted out of consciousness again he heard a faint voice whisper in his ear.

"You'll be okay Jarod. I promise. I have you."

 

Miss Parker sat by Jarod's bed in the Centre's clinic watching the monitors but not knowing exactly what she was looking at. It had been forty-six hours since she had called for the medical team. They had taken Jarod from his room under her orders and, from what the doctor had said, it was none too soon. Jarod had been dehydrated and running a dangerously high fever. A few more hours and the damage might have been irreversible.

She stayed with him that first night, watching as the medical team worked to stabilize him. She held his hand, much to the annoyance of the doctors, all the while they tried to get his temperature down and rehydrate him. By the time the sun had come up Jarod looked like a science experiment with all the tubes and wires attached to various parts of his body.

The sound of footsteps grabbed her attention and she turned expecting to see the doctor. She was not so lucky.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" She asked anxiously, looking at her watch. "It's almost 0300."

"I know what time it is. I'm a little more interested in what you're doing," he informed her, looking pointedly at her hand which was still holding her patients.

"I expected you in my office two days ago. I keep getting messages that you're busy. I began to wonder what you were busy doing."

"I thought I would put off getting yelled at as long as possible," she replied in an almost sheepish voice that was reserved for her father.

"Now why would I do that? From what I hear, you probably saved his life. We don't want him dead, sweetheart, we just wanted to break him down a little."

"Well, then I think you've succeeded. If he was broken anymore he'd be 6 feet under," she advised him sarcastically before remembering who she was talking to. Her father didn't appear to take offense.

“"It's just bad luck that he got sick while he was down there,” Mr. Parker stated gruffly. “He should have said something."

"He did say something to that half-wit guard, Sam. You knew that they had been at each other’s throats since I brought Jarod back yet you left him as the guard."

"So this is my fault?" He demanded to know, intentionally adjusting his voice to the tone he knew would make his daughter squirm.

"No, of course not, Daddy. I'm just tired. I'm sorry."

Mission accomplished and authority re-established. "It's okay. You'll probably deny this, but I've always known you had a soft spot in you for Jarod."

Miss Parker caught herself before her jaw dropped in surprise.

"You're damn right I deny that! He's a pain in the ass, always has been. I just don't think anyone should be both sick and alone. Besides," she added, watching Jarod sleep. “I promised him I would stay."

Mr. Parker look at Jarod and wondered if he was doing the right thing. 

"How is your patient?" He asked, just the right balance of concern and detachment in his voice.

"The Doctor says he's improving quickly. He's still feverish but he was awake long enough yesterday afternoon to complain about the all the equipment he doctors had attached to him." 

She smiled as she remembered Jarod demanding the removal of the catheter. "I can go to the bathroom on my own. I've been doing it for years."

After he threatened to remove everything himself they finally gave into him and disconnected everything except the IV and heart monitor. If he had known she was in the corner of the room watching, he didn't let on.

"They give him something to make him sleep. The night nurse had an emergency at home and since I was already here I told the doctor I would stay until the morning shift started. You might want to think about hiring a larger medical staff," she advised only half-jokingly.

"I just might do that. I guess I won't try to get you to leave with me. Now that I've seen for myself that he will live I'll have to tell the Board that our little experiment failed. I'm sure Raines will come up with something else. I hope Jarod comes away from this with a new attitude."

He bent down and kissed her on the forehead before leaving.

Miss Parker watched her father until the door closed behind him then turned her attention back to Jarod.

A fine sheen of sweat had formed on his exposed skin and she reached for the basin of water the doctor had left by the bed with instructions to keep him as cool as possible.

She was twisting the excess water from the cloth when it suddenly dawned on her what she was doing. This was Jarod, the pain in the butt that had her running around the country for a year playing his games, cleaning up his messes, getting her ass chewed from Raines and her father for not finding him. He had arranged for her to be arrested, he had her strip searched, gave her the flu and caused her ulcer. Now, here she was, ready to play nursemaid just because he looked so....so....so damn sexy unconscious that she couldn't think straight. 

She was just about to toss the cloth back into the water when Jarod groaned uncomfortably and kicked at the single sheet that covered him. She reached over and laid her hand on his face. He was still burning up. 

She stood and glanced around, pointedly ignoring the security camera, and pulled the privacy curtain around the bed. Before she could change her mind she re-wet the cloth and smoothed it over Jarod's face and neck, wiping away the sweat and temporarily leaving behind a cool trail. 

She dampened the cloth several more times as she washed his arms and then slowed as she ran the cloth over his chest and down toward the sheet at his waist. She stopped for a moment, her hands in the water, and her eyes on the sheet. She looked at Jarod’s face. He already looked more comfortable. Surely he'd feel even better if the rest of him was cooled off as well. She watched her hand move on its own as it grasped the edge of the sheet and pulled it away from his naked body.

She took the cloth and ran it slowly down one leg and up the other trying to keep her eyes averted. It was a losing battle. Dipping the rag in the water again she finally surrendered to the pull. 

She started with the cloth on his abdomen, moving it in gentle circles as she moved closer to his groin. She had seen him in the shower, of course, and while he was being treated by the doctor, but this was completely different. This would probably be her only chance to explore him in the flesh and the temptation was too overpowering. She could feel it deep in the core of her own passion, a heat that was building, bringing with it a dampness between her legs.

 

This was what she had wanted since the day she had come home after graduation looking for Jarod. The eight years she spent away at boarding school and college had left her with dozens of male conquests, yet she still sought the company of the first boy she had ever kissed.

She waited a full week before venturing through the Centre looking for him. She had, of course, casually asked about him and discovered he was free to roam around the lower levels when he wasn't working. This made it a little more difficult to 'accidentally' run into him, but she had managed. 

After wandering through nine levels she had arrived in the gymnasium where several people were exercising. She looked them over quickly, lingering for a moment while she watched one incredible looking man add more weights to a barbell.

"I'll be back for you," she mumbled appreciatively as her eyes slid over his body.

She was turning to leave when she heard one of the staff members yell across the room.

"Jarod! Don't you try lifting that without a spotter!"

She turned quickly and watched as he smiled innocently at the staffer. She knew that smile. Oh my God, that was Jarod? She watched as he waited patiently for the man to get into position to spot him and then effortlessly began his workout.

 

All these years had done nothing to diminish the secret feelings she had for him. Now, totally lost to herself, she laid her hand on the object of her desire and gently began coaxing it to life. She was so completely involved in what she was doing that she didn't even jump when a perplexed voice whispered, "Am I hallucinating again?"

She looked into his groggy eyes and saw the barest hint of recognition.

"Yes, you are. Just enjoy the dream."

She continued to stroke him as she had watched him do it in the shower, firmly, rhythmically. As he grew in her hand she bent down and took him. She heard his soft gasp as he was enveloped in the warm, wet heat of her mouth, but she was too far gone to think about it. She kept her hands cupped at the base of his penis, one massaging his balls, the other moving where her mouth could not reach.

She was vaguely aware of the increased beeping from the monitors as she felt him instinctively begin to thrust into her. She saw his muscles begin to tense as he fought to remain in control of his body, but she did not want him in control. 

She opened her throat and took as much of him in as she could, then pulled back so she had just the tip before trying to devour him again. 

She did that over and over until she could feel his body begin to convulse. She continued to stimulate him while he came in several strong bursts. It was only another moment before she was swallowing his juices and slowly licking him clean. 

Jarod was gasping for breath as the beeping of the monitors began to level off again. He felt the tension drain from his body as he watched her use the wet cloth to wipe her mouth while she smiled at him. As he began to lose consciousness again he heard her whisper, "Pleasant dreams."

 

Jarod awoke to a brightly lit room, unable to tell if it was night or day. He kept his eyes closed hoping he would fall asleep again. Whatever drugs they were giving him, he wanted more. He had been having the best dream about Miss Parker and was ready to let his subconscious recreate it immediately. He stretched enjoying the first pain free movements he had experienced in almost two weeks.

"Are you alive?"

Jarod recognized the voice and opened his eyes. Mr. Parker sat beside the bed watching him. 

"Yeah, I am. Sorry," Jarod replied hoarsely. He coughed to clear his throat and Mr. Parker immediately got up and poured a glass of water from the pitcher beside the bed. Jarod pushed himself up on one elbow as he took the glass. He sipped cautiously at first and then gulped the rest of it down.

Jarod looked down at his stomach and spoke to the water he had just swallowed.

"Now you stay there. I don't want to see you again today."

Mr. Parker laughed loudly. "I'm glad to see you can find some humor in this." He took the glass from Jarod and placed it back beside the pitcher. "Do you have any idea why you were so sick?"

Jarod recognized a sneaky question when he heard one.

"No," he answered slowly, laying back against the pillows, "but I'm suddenly betting you do."

"I had something to do with it. You didn't think I was going to leave you down there, did you?"

"I kind of got that impression, yeah."

"No, no. The longer you were there the less my daughter had to do up here. As far as I'm concerned, you have failed to live up to your part of our deal. You were supposed to let her chase you until I said to stop. You weren't even gone a year."

"I'd still be gone if it wasn't for Sydney faking that heart attack. I need to know why he did that," Jarod replied, trying to come up with a reason, any reason that would explain Sydney's actions.

"It doesn't make any difference."

"It does to me. He was the only one I trusted. Why did he sell me out?"

"If you're going to find out you had better make it quick," Parker warned him.

"Why?"

"Because you're leaving. And this time you're staying gone. I don't care if they're chasing you and Sydney's head falls off and rolls away. You. Keep. Going."

Jarod was confused.

"Last time we spoke, you told me that if I got caught and brought back, you would not help me escape again. What changed your mind?"

Mr. Parker smiled wryly. "I had no idea how inept you would be at undercover work."

"Inept?! I've done everything you told me to," Jarod replied indignantly.

"I did not tell you to torment my daughter with information about her mother's suicide."

"Murder," Jarod corrected. "I was there. Remember?"

"I don't know what you think you saw as a child, but my wife was not murdered. You are leading my daughter down a path that she doesn't need to take."

"So, you don't mind manipulating her into staying at the Centre by making her chase me, but you do draw the line at letting her decide for herself what happened to her mother and why. You know she was going to get me and the other children out of here."

"I am not going to argue with you about this again," Mr. Parker interrupted, putting an end to the conversation. "You realize, of course, that without my help you will spend the rest of your life here. However long that might be," he added in a veiled threat.

"That brings up an excellent question. Why do you want me here? You can't believe I would ever run another simulation for you. Well, not an accurate one anyway," Jarod smiled knowingly.

"I think you would...with the right incentive," Mr. Parker replied, the warning clear in his voice.

"Dangling my parents in front of me won't work anymore," Jarod lied, hoping it didn't show.

"Jarod, there are any number of people we could threaten that would have you jumping through hoops if we so desired. Would you like me to list them?" He asked, pulling a small notepad from his pocket.

"No,” Jarod admitted. He had a pretty good idea who headed up that list.

"Good. In that case we'll have to prepare for your departure again. Last time there were far too many unanswered questions. Security went nuts trying to figure out how you had escaped. Raines ordered an internal investigation that almost reached my level. We can't have that happen again. This time I want a dramatic escape that leaves no doubt as to how you got away."

"Really? Shall I take a wild guess here and assume you have something in mind?"

"In mind? It's already begun. You were right about my having something to do with your sudden illness. Actually, I had everything to do with it."

"What did you do to me?" Jarod demanded to know, his mind racing with possibilities.

"Nothing fatal. To begin with, you had a rather nasty case of the Taiwan flu. You were infected a week before your little stunt with the computer. I had planned on you being safe in your room when you got sick but you derailed that. I had no choice but to go along with Raines and send you to isolation. Anything else and he would have been suspicious."

"You said I had the flu to begin with. What else did I have?"

"I needed to keep you sick long enough for someone, I thought it would be Sydney, to beg Raines for your release to the clinic. I knew a simple three day virus wouldn't do it so I improvised. Do you remember being sick as a child?"

Jarod had thought about that a lot lately.

"No. As far as I remember this is the first time."

"About a week after you arrived you got sick. The doctors attributed it to stress but Sydney kept after them until they ran some tests. It turned out you were having a severe reaction to one of the supplements we had developed and had been feeding you. We stopped immediately, of course, but later on we had another Pretender run a simulation of continued exposure to the chemical."

"Let me guess. Stomach cramps, nausea, headache, severe joint and muscle pain?"

"Exactly. The same symptoms of the flu except this could last forever."

"So as soon as I started recovering from the flu, you spiked my food with this chemical?"

"Yes, I think you have a grasp on the situation."

The only thing Jarod wanted a grasp on was Mr. Parker’s neck.

"So, what now?"

"Next, we get you moved from the Centre to the hospital in Blue Cove. It's already been determined that you were quite ill with something the doctors here could not identify. If you were to get sick again we would have no choice but to seek outside medical attention."

Jarod glanced nervously at the empty glass he had recently drank from. Mr. Parker followed his gaze.

"Oh, don't worry. I didn't spike the water. I think you have sufficient information on this illness that you can run a very convincing simulation. Raines and I are going to be in Canada tonight. The doctor on duty is someone I can trust. I'm leaving instructions that we are not to be disturbed under any circumstances and I'm leaving my daughter in charge of you. After she arrives, I want you to start your simulation. Do whatever it takes to get your heart rate up so there is some medical documentation, and then simulate the rest."

"Then what?" Jarod asked, already planning the simulation in his head.

"Then I want you to....." Mr. Parker leaned toward Jarod and laid out the rest of his plan.

 

Miss Parker caught herself smiling as she headed toward the clinic to see Jarod. The last three times she had visited he had been sleeping and she had sat by the bed watching him, wondering what was going to happen once he was well again. 

Her father said he was going to tell Raines they needed another course of action where Jarod was concerned. At least it appeared he would not be sent back to isolation. Not that she cared, of course. She was going to get the information on her mother from him when he was feeling better and then never step foot in Delaware again.

She entered the double doors of the clinic and passed by the guard without acknowledging him. As she approached Jarod's room the nurse was on her way out carrying an electric shaver. She smiled when she saw Miss Parker.

"He's all cleaned up and ready for visitors," she happily announced as she passed by.

Miss Parker caught herself before she made a sarcastic remark to the nurse. Instead, she returned the smile and opened the door.

Jarod sat up in bed reading a book. He was now dressed in a pair of light blue pajamas and the ghostly pallor was gone from his face. He looked up and smiled when she entered the room.

"Oh good, company," he greeted her, laying the book down on the bedside table.

"Hello, Jarod. You're looking....human again."

"How nice of you to notice. Have a seat," he offered, nodding his head toward the familiar chair by the bed.

She pulled the chair a little farther away and sat down, reaching into her pocket as she did so.

"I brought you something," she told him sweetly, holding out a small box.

Jarod took it warily. "You did? How thoughtful and … so unlike you. What's the occasion?"

He started to open the box.

"You've given me so many gifts I thought I'd return the favor."

Jarod stopped immediately. All the gifts he had given her were for the sole purpose of distracting and irritating her. He was suddenly a lot less curious to see his what she was giving him.

Miss Parker seemed to read his mind.

"It's not going to hurt you. Open it," she encouraged with a smile that made Jarod want to soak the box in water first.

He held the gift at arm’s length and slowly lifted the lid. When nothing jumped out at him he removed it the rest of the way, looked in, and started to chuckle.

"Where in the world did you get this?" He asked in amazement as he lifted the gift from the box.

Miss Parker held back her own smile.

"I went to a toy store," she admitted. "Some whiny little brat wanted it but I got it first. I thought it suited you."

Jarod looked at the Casper pez dispenser and was confused.

"I remind you of a ghost that is friendly yet scares people?"

She shook her head in amazement. He still took everything so literally.

"No. I was thinking more of the ghost itself. An apparition that is there one minute and gone the next."

Jarod suddenly felt horrible. Here she was, trying to be nice, and he was going to play Casper on her and disappear again.

Miss Parker noticed the frown on his face. "Do you have that one?" she asked, dreading another trip to the toy store. 

Jarod looked up and thought fast. "Oh no," he assured her. "I was just noticing that it had grape pez. I'm a cherry kind of guy."

"I'll remember that for next time."

Jarod slid Casper into the pocket of his pajama top. Miss Parker watched him, noticing for the first time that he was still hooked up to the heart monitor. She had become so used to the equipment that she hadn't even realized he was still beeping. 

"When do you get rid of this stuff?" she inquired, gesturing toward the machine.

Jarod wanted to kick himself. He had almost forgotten the plan. It was time to go. "Not for a while, I guess,” he replied sadly. " The doctors still don't know why I was so sick. I'm still feeling rotten."

"You look really good to me," she replied without thinking. 

Jarod looked at her oddly and she tried not to blush.

"I meant you look healthy," she clarified awkwardly.

"I still have -" Jarod stopped to cough. It was a deep, rumbling cough he had been practicing all day. He kept at it until he could see Miss Parker getting worried. She got up and poured him a glass of water and stood by the bed until he stopped, his face flushed with the effort.

"My God, when did that start? You haven't been coughing like that," she told him, holding the glass up to his lips.

Jarod swallowed a mouthful of water and then took another small sip that he held in his mouth. When Miss Parker turned to put the glass down Jarod picked up a tiny pill that he had sitting beside him on the bed and quickly popped it in his mouth with the water.

He needed sixty seconds.

Miss Parker put her hand on Jarod’s forehead and felt the heat coming off of him.

"Your fever is coming back," she informed him, reaching for the cloth and water basin. She dipped the cloth in the cold water and squeezed the excess out before gently wiping the sweat from his face. 

Jarod groaned softly. The cool water felt great. The heating pads in his pillows and under the sheets were cooking him like meat on a grill.

Jarod glanced at the heart monitor and then visualized Miss Parker as she had been in his   
dream. She was bent over him, her hair cascading down around her face as she took him in her mouth......

Miss Parker looked at the monitor in alarm as Jarod's heart rate began to rise steadily. 

"Jarod, are you okay?" she asked anxiously, re-wetting the cloth.

Jarod's internal clock hit forty-five seconds and he carefully mixed the water in his mouth with the nearly dissolved pill.

He let his eyes begin to roll back in his head as he hit fifty-five seconds.

"Jarod? Jarod talk to me," she demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders. She shook him hard as he hit sixty seconds. 

Jarod coughed as violently as he could. Miss Parker jumped back in horror at the blood that came splattering out of his mouth and all over the bed. Jarod rolled onto his side toward her and clutched at his stomach with both hands. He heard her screaming for the doctor as she stood by helplessly watching as ‘blood’ continued to trail out the corner of his mouth.

As the doctor and nurse ran into the room Jarod stopped coughing and started to groan in pain. What he really wanted to do was grab the glass of water and rinse out his mouth. The fake blood tasted like tuna.

"Do something, you moron," Miss Parker screamed at the doctor who was quickly assessing his patients condition.

The doctor turned to her, a grave expression on his face. "I'm not certain what's wrong with him. He might be hemorrhaging."

"Well then operate and fix it, you moron," Miss Parker ordered, watching Jarod writhe in pain.

"I don't have the facilities for this. We have to get him to the hospital in Blue Cove."

Miss Parker began to panic. "You know he can't leave here," she began. The doctor cut her off.

"He either leaves here right now or he leaves tomorrow in a box. You decide, but make it fast."

'That's just great,' she thought. 'The one night my father and Raines are both out of the Centre and this happens'.

Jarod could see that Miss Parker was having a hard time deciding whether or not to save him, so he decided to raise the stakes a little. He waited until he saw her turning toward him then suddenly stopped moving as he feigned unconsciousness. 

Five minutes later he was in one of the Centre's large, executive helicopters for the short trip to Blue Cove General Hospital.

When the helicopter settled down on the roof of the hospital, the pilot hopped out and slid the door open so the emergency team could remove the stretcher. He grabbed onto one of the sides as it slid free of the passenger compartment and held it up as a gurney was pushed into place underneath.

Caught up in the moment he began moving toward the hospital doors with everyone else. It wasn't until he looked down and saw that Miss Parker was the one on the stretcher that he realized his helicopter was leaving without him. 

 

In the helicopter Jarod laughed as the pilot ran after him to the edge of the roof. He watched as Miss Parker disappeared into the hospital and hoped they found the note he had pinned to her shirt explaining what sedative he had given her and how long she would be asleep. He also hoped she wasn't going to be too angry with him when she woke up. She was going to have a hard enough time dealing with her father who was going to insist she capture Jarod again. 

As for Mr. Parker, Jarod had been happy to find a duffel bag full of clothes and a new credit card under one of the seats. When that man decides to help someone escape he goes all the way.

The only thing Jarod regretted was not talking to Sydney the entire time he was at the Centre.   
Miss Parker had told him of Raines' threat to kill Jarod if Sydney contacted him, but that left Jarod with too many unanswered questions. Questions, he supposed, that would have to wait for another day.

 

Whistling Winds Motel  
Lincoln, Nebraska - Two Weeks Later

 

As expected, Jarod was long gone when Sydney and Miss Parker had arrived. They had been led here from a newspaper photograph of Jarod winning a cooking contest for a pineapple upside down cake. The photo had been taken three days ago and the manager said Jarod had left that night but paid for the room through the end of the week, leaving strict instructions it not be disturbed until then.

Miss Parker opened the door slowly, ever vigilant of any prank Jarod might pull. When it became apparent she wasn’t going to be doused with a bucket of water, she pushed the door open all the way and immediately groaned.  
Sydney looked in over her shoulder and hid a smile. Stepping past her, he entered the room and began treading lightly across several inches of sand covering the entire floor. The furniture had been moved against the far wall and in the middle of the room stood an inflatable six-foot palm tree overlooking a small wading pool. Floating in the pool were several rubber ducks wearing sunglasses, and one of them was on a tiny raft. Sydney bent over and gave that one a little push with his finger, sending it gently to the opposite side of the pool. Looking back over his shoulder, he spotted Miss Parker going through a stack of books that had been laying on a flowery deck chair.  
“Find anything unusual?” He asked, knowing full well that covered just about everything in the room.  
Parker tossed him an envelope that was addressed to the hotel manager for ‘Cleaning Services’, then headed toward the door.  
"Looks like your little lab rat is going into the pineapple business. Get out your flowered shirt, Syd. We're headed for beautiful Hawaii."

Howard Falls, Oregon   
The Same Day

 

Jarod shifted on the sofa while trying to avoid the spring that was digging into his leg. That was definitely on the list of things he wanted to fix in the cabin while he was here. He tapped a few more keys on his laptop computer and was relieved when it immediately responded with the data he had requested.

He was intent on his reading when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck from behind, hands resting on his chest. He smiled, tipping his head back for an upside down view of his attacker.

"Hi there, Sleepy. I thought you were going to stay in bed all day," he teased as warm lips met his in a deep, good morning kiss.

"I was hoping we would both be in bed all day," Nia replied as she looked over his shoulder at the computer. "What are you doing?" 

Jarod angled the laptop so she had a better view. "Remember yesterday, when I told you what had happened at the Centre, I told you about the web pages I made? Well, it was never my intent to expose the Centre that way."

"I don't understand. Why go to all that work for nothing?"

"I knew they expected me to do something, so I gave them what they wanted; an elaborate attempt to expose and discredit them. What I really did was this," he indicated the laptop.

"Every time Broots deleted a page I created, it not only dropped the file into the recycling bin, but it dropped a copy into a program that only I know about and only I can access."

"So you can get into their files at any time and they will never know?"

"Not unless someone goes through the system program by program, file by file and knows exactly what they were looking for. And," he continued as he took her hand and pulled her around to the front of the sofa and into his lap, "they have no reason to suspect I did that so they'll never look."

"Why not just expose them all and shut them down?"

"If the Centre dies, the secrets die with it and I'll never know the truth. How many DSA's have you watched since I sent you the case?"

"Well," she said in mock seriousness, "let me answer that by saying you were very scrawny as a teenager. I'm glad you've filled out."

"How glad?" He asked, treating her to a devilish grin.

She ran a finger along his jaw feeling his smooth, freshly shaved skin.

"Very glad. How long can you stay this time?" She asked as she began to slowly unbutton his shirt.

Jarod watched her until she reached the last button and started on his belt before he realized she had asked him a question.

"I, uh, sent Syd and Parker off on a wild pineapple chase before I came here. We should have three or four weeks before they retrace my steps and head this way. Can you handle them again or should I go?"

She smiled as she pulled the belt free of his pants and tossed it aside.

"You're not going anywhere except back upstairs with me. We might even make it back down here a few times before your month is up."

"That is the best idea I've heard in a long time," Jarod admitted. He took Nia's face in his hands and kissed her lips softly. 

She looked into the eyes of the only man she would ever love and could never completely have. For now, it was enough.

"Welcome home, Jarod."

 

Continued in : Once A Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Pretender and its characters are the creations of NBC and MTM, not me. I borrowed'em, abused'em, and returned'em. No harm, no foul.


End file.
